Share This Story!

Rutgers students decry Rice as commencement speaker

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A faculty member leading the charge against Rutgers' selection of Condoleezza Rice as commencement speaker said that he doesn't expect university officials to back down on awarding the

Post to Facebook

{#
#}

CancelSend

Sent!

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

25

Join the Nation's Conversation

Rutgers students decry Rice as commencement speaker

More than 150 Rutgers University students, many of them Muslim, are protesting the choice of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as commencement speaker.
(East Brunswick, N.J.) Home News Tribune

More than 150 Rutgers University students, many of them Muslim, protested the choice of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as commencement speaker.(Photo: Bob Makin, (East Brunswick, N.J.) Home News Tribune)

On Monday, more than 150 Rutgers students protested the decision because of her role in launching wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, staging a sit-in at the office of Rutgers President Robert Barchi. Charges were threatened against 20 students who remained after the building closed but no one was arrested.

"I think the commitment to having her speak has been made, and she lacks the dignity to withdraw. And so her commencement speech will go ahead," said Rudolph Bell, a history professor who organized a teach-in protest of Rice. "We will be going forward with our teaching. We hope the educational process will result in continual ripples in the fall where students and faculty take back their rightful role of selecting the commencement speaker."

Rice will receive $35,000 for speaking at the graduation ceremonies May 18.

President George W. Bush appointed Rice, now 59, as national security adviser, from 2001 to 2005, and secretary of state, from 2005 to 2009. The Birmingham, Ala., native was the first black woman to serve in both posts.

"She misled the American public," said Sherif Ibrahim, who helped organize the sit-in. "She made dozens of statements to several media outlets that said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and as we all know, Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. ...

"By awarding her an honorary degree, we are perpetuating things that are very wrong," he said. "Inviting her is allowing it to happen again, and we can do better than that."

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivers a speech on civil rights progress April 17, 2014, at the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.(Photo: Jeff Wheeler, AP)

University officials declined comment Tuesday on the protest and faculty criticism that the choice of Rice followed a breach of protocol.

Barchi's only public comment since the Board of Governors voted Feb. 4 to name Rice as commencement speaker came in a letter to the campus community in which he lauded Rice as "one of the most influential intellectual and political figures of the last 50 years."

As he lauded Rice's qualifications, he also defended the board's choice of Rice, who returned to Stanford University near Palo Alto, Calif., as a professor after her service as secretary of state.

"We cannot protect free speech or academic freedom by denying others the right to an opposing view, or by excluding those with whom we may disagree. Free speech and academic freedom cannot be determined by any group. They cannot insist on consensus or popularity."

Rice has received at least 10 other honorary degrees from universities across the country, according to her curriculum vitae on Stanford University's website. Her speeches at universities across the country sometimes bring out protesters:

• At a speech April 17 at the University of Minnesota, about 200 students chanted and waved signs outside while 1,200 listened inside. Rice was paid $150,000 for her lecture, according to the Minnesota Daily campus newspaper.

• At a speech in 2011 after the publication of Rice's book, No Higher Honor, nearly 100 protesters gathered outside Claremont McKenna College's gymnasium. Among their demonstrations: simulated waterboarding, according to The Student Life newspaper at The Claremont Colleges consortium in Claremont, Calif.

• Earlier in 2011, the University of Chicago postponed a Rice appearance with former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. because of what university officials called a scheduling conflict after Occupy Chicago student protesters said they would attend. The university's website had no information on whether the speech ever occurred.

Earlier this month, Internet sharing service Dropbox appointed Rice to its board of directors, sparking debate on the private company's blog about her role as former national security adviser and her views on Web surveillance.

Rice contracts with the Washington Speakers Bureau as her exclusive agent and has spoken to business groups including the Business Council of Alabama in Montgomery; Hanover Insurance Co., based on Worcester, Mass.; and the Prudential Financial's Prudential Retirement division, based in Hartford, Conn., according to the bureau's website. Her fees vary.

At Rutgers, Bell expects additional protests before and perhaps during graduation ceremonies.

"Students and faculty may turn their back," he said. "They may wear armbands. They may walk out. They may simply not attend."